Research background: In the context of constantly changing business environment, the financial sector is focusing on new trends in financial management systems. Nowadays, there is a need to achieve long-term financial growth, so financial managers try to develop new models for managing and improving the financial performance of businesses in economic practice. Purpose of the article: This article aims to determine the financial performance of travel agencies by applying modern business performance evaluation methods in order to create a performance portfolio (ranking) for the years 2013–2017, subsequently to reveal the concordance rate of order of the selected business entities by comparing applied financial methods in the context of performance benchmarking. The research question is as follows: Does the multidimensional PCA method in the form of the performance portfolio of travel agencies provide similar financial results compared to the EVA indicator? Methods: For measuring the financial performance of businesses, the method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the indicator Economic Value Added (EVA) were chosen. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was applied in order to reveal the concordance rate of the analyzed travel agencies. Findings & Value added: The results indicate that by applying the PCA method, 6 key performance factors can be identified. Moreover, the findings revealed that the assessment of travel agencies using the PCA method and EVA indicator did not lead to the same financial results. Individual financial methods identified a different number of strong-performing and inefficient business entities. In this backdrop, we concluded that the business performance measurement based on the PCA method is not a suitable alternative to measuring performance using the EVA indicator.

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The paper presents the issue of sports activity development in the context of the European City of Sports project in selected Slovakian cities: Košice, Banská Bystrica and Nitra. It is an analytical overview aiming at the development of these cities for tourism through the organisation of international sporting events. Using several methods, especially comparison, the authors analyse certain activities and other sports-related issues. The events and activities not only contributed to the development of sport but also supported tourism in the region. A review of the literature on the subject demonstrates the importance and basic assumptions of the European City of Sports as a popular project. The comparative analysis has enabled the authors to present its results in each of the three Slovakian cities.

Hospitality, which suffered a huge blow during the Covid-19 period and had to adapt its operation to pandemic measures, heads for its recovery. Innovation is one of the ways to get out of an unfavourable situation having in mind that health risks can represent a significant factor affecting participation in tourism. The paper specifies the perception of the necessity of digital innovations application as health protection factor and sustainable mean of hospitality sector development. It shows how of tourism participant in domestic condition of Slovak republic perceive the need of their application to hospitality services. Through the questionnaire method it examined opinion of domestic visitors in hospitality and its direction towards the digitization of services in this sphere, and subsequently tested by Mann-Whitney and Kruskall-Wallis tests. The results show that Slovak tourists treat digital innovation in hospitality services as the ones, that are a necessary part of tourism services portfolio. Their specifics can also be defined in terms of health protection. They can act as an element of health protection by eliminating contact among individual tourism participants. At the same time, they also perceive them as a means that tends to keep the hospitality industry alive even in the post-pandemic period.

W artykule została omówiona kwestia rozwoju aktywności sportowej na przykładzie projektu pod nazwą Europejskie Miasto Sportu. W wybranych miastach Słowacji (Koszycach, Bańskiej Bystrzycy i Nitrze) przeprowadzono analizę działań mających na celu rozwój tych miejscowości oraz wspieranie turystyki poprzez organizację międzynarodowych imprez sportowych. Dzięki zastosowaniu kilku metod, zwłaszcza komparatywnej, można porównać wybrane przedsięwzięcia i związane z nimi problemy. Wspomniane wydarzenia i inne prowadzone czynności wsparły nie tylko rozwój sportu, ale również turystyki w badanych miastach. Przegląd literatury pozwala ocenić główne założenia oraz znaczenie popularnego projektu pod nazwą Europejskie Miasto Sportu. Analiza porównawcza pokazuje intensywność działań w każdym z trzech wspomnianych słowackich miast.